"Artificial Sweeteners?
Cause cancer right?
The devils dandruff.
You won’t get me touching that stuff."
Wellll… Not quite. The science tells us that artificial sweeteners are perfectly safe.
There’s a bit more nuance to these studies that ‘accidentally’ gets missed when reported by the media. I mean, it’s not like they’d have a vested interest in getting people riled up or worried… they wouldn’t stoop that low.
Surely?
Yes, they would.
And don’t call me Shirley.
Scientists don’t like to talk in absolutes. They present the evidence in front of them. They’ll make a statement like: ‘In this trial, the rats that were force fed aspartame had higher incidence of cancerous lesions when compared to the control group.’ The media reports that as ‘Aspartame causes cancer… ARRRGGGGGHHHHH!!! P.S immigrants. P.P.S Love Island. P.P.P.S This bloody government, eh?’ Context is key. When identifying the safe limit of any substance, we never go straight to human trials. You can’t just pump people full of sweeteners to see what happens. Enter the humble rat. Why rats? - they’re mammals, like us. - They share 69% of our DNA. - They have a shorter life cycle. We can see long-term effects relatively quickly and explore the impact on future generations. (When a mummy rat and daddy rat love each other very much…) But… and it’s a big ol' but. They are rats at the end of the day. They’re expendable. You can do things to a rat that would be unthinkable and completely unethical to a human. (steady) For example, When you’re trying to find a safe limit for any substance, you need to find the point where negative changes occur. To put it incredibly bluntly, these scientists are actively trying to force the occurrence of tumours, mutations, toxicity etc. That is the goal. Give progressively higher and higher doses. Find the dangerous level and then work backwards to provide a safe recommendation. Did aspartame increase cancer rates in rats? Yes. But only because that’s what the study was designed to do. That’s what they were trying to find out. Where is the limit? What is a safe level of consumption. How can we extrapolate this to human use. Too much of anything will cause you problems. Look at iron for example. Iron in your diet is good for you right? Absolutely. Men (and women over 50) should be aiming for 8.7mg per day. Women with a menstrual cycle should aim for 14.8mg per day. But, if you throw >1000mg down your neck… you’re gonna have a bad time. Vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, liver failure, death. Marvellous way to go. Trial after trial, review after review has come to the same conclusion. Approved artificial sweeteners are perfectly safe in normal doses. When it comes to aspartame, the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) recommend an acceptable daily intake of 40mg per kg of bodyweight per day. And the EFSA are a much harder taskmaster than their American equivalent (FDA) who recommend 50mg/kg per day. To put it in real terms, it’s the equivalent of 36 cans of Diet Coke for a 60kg person daily. If you’re drinking that much…a tumour is the least of your worries. *The sweeteners Advantame (5mg/kg bw per day) and Steviol Glycosides (4mg/kg bw per day) have lower ADI but are significantly sweeter, meaning less is used. Now, I’m not saying get out there on some Tony Montana sweetener binge.
What I am saying is: if you have a lot of sweet foods in your diet already, switching to a low-calorie alternative is a perfectly safe way to lower your calorie intake. But over time, decreasing the amount of sweet foods in your diet will be beneficial and allow your palate to change (we’ll save that for another email).
P.S. If this is you: “But I get migraines from artificial sweeteners.” We really don’t know much about migraines and their causes. They’re incredibly individualised. If you think that a substance triggers migraines for you, avoid it. That goes without saying.
You are the expert on you.
Further Reading: